'I disgust myself' says man who raped Sally Anne as she lay dead

The man accused of murdering Sally Anne Bowman described yesterday having sex with her dead body while in a drink and drug stupor.

Mark Dixie, 37, told a court that he initially thought the 18-year-old had passed out when he raped her while high after a four-day binge.

He added that he was "disgusted with himself" for carrying out the sex attack.

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Accused: Mark Dixie, 37, claims that he had sex with Sally Anne's corpse because he thought that she had fallen unconscious through alcohol

Sally Anne's mother Linda broke down in tears as the pub chef recalled how he "took full advantage" of the naked body of the aspiring model when he found her lying in a pool of blood on her doorway.

Describing himself as a "like a vacuum cleaner when it came to cocaine", Dixie told the Old Bailey that he had left a friend's house to get more cocaine in the early hours of the morning when he stumbled upon the teenager's mutilated body.

She had been stabbed seven times with such ferocity that the knife passed through her neck and abdomen.

But Dixie, who denies murder, laughed off the allegation that he had stabbed her to death before dragging her body down the drive to escape the blood pooling around the body.

He said that he only realised that she was dead when he savagely bit her cheek and neck and she failed to respond.

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He said: "I am totally disgusted with myself for doing it. I can't change what I done."

The jury heard how he "took full advantage" after seeing a pair of legs sprawled on the driveway of Sally Anne's home in Croydon, South London, on September 25, 2005.

Dixie said: "As I walked between the van and the skip I saw a pair of legs on the side of the road.

"I have gone over it during the last three years. I don't know what went through my mind that night.

"I crouched down from behind where the legs were. I took full advantage of someone and I should not have done it.

"All I saw was a pair of legs, shirt put down to the waist and I took advantage of her."

When asked whether he thought she was alive at the time, Dixie went on: "I would not have expected to see anyone dead in that street.

"I thought she might have passed out through drink or fallen over."

He added: "I did maybe think she would wake up not realising what went on the night before."

The defendant said he continued to have sex with the teenager and bite her, even when he realised that she must be dead.

He returned to his friend's flat a few streets away around 5am, smoked a "spliff" and dozed off on the couch, the court heard.

Earlier that night he had downed seven pints of lager, shots of Sambuca and Jack Daniel's, drunk several bottles of wine, snorted more than a gramme of cocaine and had several cannabis joints before venturing out of his friend's flat in search of more drugs at 4.30am.

Dixie, who said he had never met Sally Anne before that night, became increasingly irate as he was cross-examined yesterday.

Prosecutor Brian Altman asked: "You killed her for sex, didn't you?"

Dixie replied: "No. I did not go out looking for someone to kill for sex."

He also angrily denied "reliving" her killing when he committed a lewd sex act on an image of Sally Anne around the six-month anniversary of her death.

The court heard he made an "unguarded confession" when he was arrested by police last year, telling officers: "I must be mental to do something like that, eh?"

But Dixie said his comment related only to the sex attack.

When asked if he had taken Sally Anne's underwear as a "trophy" after killing her, Dixie laughed saying: "It is ridiculous what you are suggesting."